Une Envie de Sel

The other day this gorgeous tea towel, so beautifully wrapped, arrived in the mail from Yanyan of Suvi Ainoa.
Suvi Ainoa is a dream of Yanyan's, soon to be realized - a lifestyle brand that celebrates simple living. This tea towel features a design by the wonderful Finnish artist Hanna Konola. Check out her site. The work is so striking, dreamlike and yet grounded and earthy.
This simple image of the house with its little trail of footprints is so evocative of the simple pleasures of a home, and it struck me right away when I saw it on Yanyan's blog (her web shop will be open soon). It's like a flash of emotion in a single printed image.
Q loves to open packages that come in the mail for her, but is sometimes more interested in the wrappings than in the contents. On this occasion, however, she was immediately taken with the tea towel, and carried it around for quite some time holding it up to see.
This is the actual print as posted on Yanyan's blog. In "the flesh", it is really almost too beautiful to use as a tea towel, a work of contemporary art transformed into a beautifully-crafted household object. I think since Q is so taken with it, I'll be tempted to use it as a wall-hanging instead.

Many thanks, Yanyan! We adore it!

The caveat to this story is that Yanyan hails from the same region of China as the Q. Q will someday understand this, and I think it will be an important and meaningful early connection for her.